Website terms and conditions template: hotel

Not yet reviewed

This set of terms has been drawn for placement on the website of a hotel that allows guests to book rooms and other services such as venue hire, business conferencing or meeting facilities, catering, and leisure facilities. Following industry standards, they are written in plain language, with minimal legal jargon, so that your guests, especially those for whom English may not be a native language, can more easily read, understand and comply with them.

About this document

These terms are suitable for a hotel that takes bookings on its website.

The hotel may offer other services in addition to rooms, such as venue hire, business meeting facilities, and leisure facilities (spa treatments, swimming pools, gyms).

The document can be customised easily to reflect how your business operates.

Your T&C are the contract between you and your guests. Unless you set out your terms clearly, you leave your business open to guests overstepping boundaries (such as check-in and check-out times) and to complaints that unrealistic service levels were not met.

Of course, even the most well written T&C aren't going to prevent difficult customers finding something to grumble about, but they should protect you from more serious claims that you haven't provided the level of service that your guests expected.

Presentation and use of plain language

In the hotel and leisure industry many contractual terms are also part of the explanation of what is provided, and how and where and when (for example, what is included in the price of a room, or how a customer can cancel a reservation). We have followed the industry practice of presenting the terms in a style that does to look like a legal document and that does not use legal jargon.

That does not mean that the legal effect is in any way diminished. Clear, concise terms written in plain English will benefit your business far more than a verbose document written in legalistic language. Guests are more likely to book and stay with you because:

you set their expectations in advance as to what their stay will be like

the tone of your terms is friendly and welcoming rather than intimidating

the professionalism reflected in your terms is likely to be extended across other areas of your business

they understand the rules of staying with you (particularly important in a business where many of your customers are unlikely to be native speakers)

The terms themselves have been written for placement on your website. We assume that your guests will read and accept them just before confirming a booking (or giving their card details, if you take this information online). They can equally be adapted for print.

Alternative templates

If you are in any doubt as to which template you should choose, please contact us.

The law in this document

The law in these T&C is largely common law that deals with the basics of contracts: offer, acceptance, price and payment, provision of service, liabilities and risk.

That means that, by and large, you can set the commercial terms you want. Our guidance notes will tell you what you can change safely, and what we don't advise changing.

We also take account of the Consumer Contracts (ICAC) Regulations 2013, which apply to many consumer transactions over the Internet.

Document contents

The template includes provisions that cover:

Contract: formed on the acceptance of the hotelier rather than on payment

Security of credit card payment

Price and payment method

Reservation and cancellation

Arrival and departure

Minimum contractual position

Restrictions on the actions of guests during a stay

Event management

Disclaimers and limitation of liability

Indemnity

Other miscellaneous legal provisions

It would be impractical to set out the terms of each service in full detail in this document (such as use of the swimming pool). This document provides for the situation that you set out the rules of use of services in more detail in some other way (such as on notices around the hotel).

Draftsman

This document was written by a solicitor for Net Lawman. It complies with current English law.

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